Hi Jill,

Though there is good with bad in many of these comments, it is already getting rather depressing for me, as you can imagine. It is possible for you to also think of and send a few ‘inquiring questions’ that I can get my teeth into? For example, ‘ Could you please tell me how you came to the idea behind Holy Safety Net?’

I do appreciate your input and I know this is not really your responsibility but I had wanted the  Blog to extend the exhibition discussion, not to give space generally to critical comments – especially ‘anonymous’ ones (see one of my previous BBBBlogs). I already know that many will find this work challenging. These views should not be reinforced on the Blog unless the authors want to learn something more from the work. I wish to move beyond first impressions for those who are interested.

Many thanks for your help in all of this,

Flossie

Hello Flossie,

Anon ‘ Clever, but not my style of art. Lovely visually.’

Cheers Jill

Hello Flossie,

We have one comment for you from one of our volunteers who made the comment that the exhibitor was ‘…quite good as it relates to family & life, the ordinary living people.’ Kay noted that one person spent at least a half an hour looking at the exhibition while another basically walked in and walked out.

Cheers Jill

Hello Flossie,

In reference to your work Handmade and the comment that the past can conceal a future bias – Is this to be understood as meaning that once one has taken up the domestic identity and ‘adorned the apron’ then one is always connected to that past and decisions will be coloured through the domestic identity? or could you perhaps mean that the apron has figured in both a positive nurturing light in addition to the domestic drudge that some see as a product of womanhood?

I am interested in the inspiration behind the work, so please explain.

Cheers Jill

I like both your interpretations of this assertion! I hadn’t thought of either idea specifically when I wrote what I did but yours make just as good sense to me!

I can only add this additional thought…by putting on the metaphorical ‘apron’ of our cultural heritage (as in doing ‘the correct thing for a particular reason’) we show others what we are made of, that is, our outlook learned from childhood. This is not something we can hide, it is out there being seen by others. But at the same time as we ‘put on’ our behaviour, we cover up part of ourselves. This private side, under the ‘apron’ dictates attitudes and actions we may not realize that we have learned from home. Some people do not look behind their cultural upbringing – for better or worse. In this way the aprons are not gender or domestically based but are used as a metaphor for the workings of society.

Image: Handcrafted aprons

Caption: HANDMADE, 2005, 15 hand crafted, Victorian aprons (Detail)

Women’s work often goes unnoticed but it joins the generations with a specific lettering of culture. Wearing one’s history – like putting on an apron – is easier and harder than may be realized. But the past can conceal a future bias.

We didn’t receive any comments today however I have a question  for you. In the small gallery there is an arrangement of  ’books’ placed on plinths. Is there any significance in the way they are arranged, or is the choice of placement purely as a way of presentation? Cheers Jill

Hi Jill,

The eight artist’s books displayed as BOOKSHELF have many pages – some are transparent, some are collaged, some are hand drawn, etc. They are peculiar books because they are joined in a way that does not allow all the pages to turn of even be opened. These stand in a closed square as a metaphor to people who have some public areas and some private areas of their lives. When we know people it is rare to know everything about them…even if they are family. So, the arrangement of the eight books is both planned and haphazard, as is our ‘familiarity’ with others.

What would a book about your life show? Would it be words or pictures? English or other? Would it open completely or remain closed and private? What of you and your life will remain ‘on the shelf’ for future generations?

Cutting-edge Art today, as the society from which it is derived, is for the most part blatantly self-seeking, bawdy and cynical. Since this is the only era I have lived in, I honestly do not know if things have ever been different….or better. However, I do feel out of sync with my peers and at odds with their world views on more than one occasion. If I would have to be a Cress or Gosper or Min Mae or Madonna to become noticed, I would not compete. By the way, I will not link their websites…if you are interested, you can find them yourself.

The Stumpf family in Canada Circa 1956. I am the youngest with Cuddles.

I was asked at the Launch if the progression in size in walls held any significance. Here is the text as found in the catalogue.

The shortest design of nine (9) is based on my birth home, from which the houses progressively rise in height, like kitchen canisters. Each having a wooden letter on its front which when all are set out in order, spell ‘container’. On the inside are the same letters, except for one, thus spelling out ‘contained’. This seems to amplify the theme of community splace. – linking the sacred of the home to the sacred of the cathedral.

Creating Community Ties

The Launch at Maryborough was the site of a brief public performance of art. Participants were handed blue ‘aprons’ to wear during the artist’s talk. Later I explained that the aprons were suggestive of community relationships and ‘the ties that bind’. Each person could take one of the ties on the apron they were wearing and tie themselves to each other or the installation HAUSTAFELN [a German word meaning ‘household duties’]. This signaled joining society and being part of the essential culture at hand. People enjoyed this hands-on aspect and it seemed to make the art come alive for many. Besides that, it was fun!

The aprons allowed eight ways to connect to each other, thus accounting for ‘Eightprons’ as coined by my sons on the day.

I think Robert Owen’s work entitled Untitled (breath) in Spill at ARC ONE GALLERY in Melbourne also references community and he must be fond of blue as well. I am flattered to think that this work looks much like one I could have created….if you are familiar with my interest in text, acrylic sheeting cut outs and blue.

This is a good question asked at the Talk. I am not quite sure what got me into text at first. I will have to think about that a bit more…

But I am interested in not just the actual ‘letter’ itself but the space around the letter as one can not exist without the other. This is a different take to the work of New York artist Jenny Holzer who projects white English text [taken from an author’s Polish poetry…more comment to make here from my point of view] into a dark gallery space and relies on the meaning of words to communicate a message. This is a metaphor for community where we all serve a purpose to create the large and small picture.

‘The house is a large cot.’ Gaston Bachelard, 20th century French Philosopher

related site: ACCA

So, the majority of my family in Melbourne joined me for Launch! How nice! You may think this is expected of an artist’s family but I assure you that there are many excuses available to the children of an artist if they do not want to be in attendance!

Since moving to Wollongong last year, my dependant family almost immediately decreased from nine to three. It was a huge shock to the system, not to mention the food and phone budget!

Thank you Josiah, Phil and Sharaya, and Patience for being my local, mobile Fan Club. Most appreciated. As we discussed in the car on the 2.5 hour drive back to Melbourne, we think the attendees were more receptive of my art and the messages behind it because I brought my progeny for ‘show and tell’.

After all, one cannot be the grande allusive artist with rowdy people at her tail and to tell tales.Thanks, once again for sharing this important day with me!

Related Website: One Apron at A Time at University of Wollongong

The day has come! A wonderful and crowd arrived for the Artist’s Dialogue and stayed for the Launch Formalities. For the first time I met Ian Tully, whom I have corresponded with for years, and his sweet wife Annie. They travelled over three hours to join in the fun. I was very impressed.

Ian was the illustrious Opener and his speech emphasized the importance of this work ‘being seen’. I agree that the tactile intrigue and mix of 2D and 3D makes B, B & B quite a delight in real life…offering plenty to tease the mind and eye.

Though people are generally moving away from the religion found in churches and in fact, are not drawn to churches as places of spirituality, Ian commented that they are very keen to buy churches as a space to construct their homes. This is true. I think people who would not be found dead in church…or maybe only dead…. still respect the ‘sense of spirituality’. I must think more about this…

Someone I spoke to later about the ‘churches as houses’ comment said it was about the large, open space on offer. This may be true too but to say ‘I live in a old church’ brings more intrigue than to say ‘I live in an old factory’.

Housing and a ‘sense of the spiritual’ is the topic for Darren McGinn at Craft Victoria. It has long been the interest of Greer Honeywill, too, at Flinders Lane Gallery

Darren McGinn, Dormitory Subtopia, 2009

Question received at Central Goldfields Art Gallery on 13/2

‘The significance of the Angels/Butterflies wings with the jewelled clips?’ Beryl Allan.

Dear Beryl,

Good question! Perhaps you will have time to return to B, B & B and have a close look at Celestial Inversions The Book as it is the key to understanding the pinned gold wings…Often we come to exhibitions with our minds made up as to what art we will like or tolerate. The same holds true about spirituality. This art invites you to consider these biases as ‘bugs’ to the system.

Have you ever visited a natural life museum and inspected the drawers of insect specimens, neatly documented with obscure differences? This was the inspiration for these ‘pests’ which infect society – interesting to consider but poisonous in possible magnitude if not eradicated. The jeweled pins represent the scientific categorizing and the idea that we unwittingly often pride ourselves / pin ourselves to the most damning aspect of our personal outlook.

Capturing the little parasites